If ambient, soundscape-style music is your thing, then generative music app option is Noatikl from developer Intermorphic and which I reviewed on the blog some time ago. Noatikl actually runs on iOS, Windows and OSX. The iOS version is currently priced at UK£7.99/US$9.99 and includes the full feature set including the ability to save, export, use MIDI out, enable background audio and (thankfully) turn off the occasional add that pops up.

As with apps like NodeBeat HD and dot Melody, Noatikl applies a set of musical ‘rules’ to create its music. The user can select a series of internal sounds and these can be told to ‘play’ in various ways based upon style templates. There are over 350 of these included in the app. You can adjust the rules controlling the time signature, tempo, scale, harmony and key in various ways.

Noatikl; lots of options for the generative music maker.

With the MIDI out option, you can’t only send MIDI note data to other iOS synths but you can also create automation data to control synth parameters. In terms of defining how a particular sound creates music, there are all sorts of tweaks and settings to make that define what might result – patterns, chords, whether one instrument follows another and, if so, how closely – so that, while the music created most naturally falls into the ambient soundscape category, there is plenty of variety on offer.

Anyway, an update to the app – v.3.3.0 – appeared on the App Store yesterday. This included a number of stability fixes and some minor graphical tweaks. Minor issues with the demo pieces, articulation behaviour and the cutoff time features have also been addressed.

The app requires iOS8.1, but offers Audiobus and IAA support so, once you have coaxed Noatikl into creating some beautiful music for you, it is very easy to take that idea and develop it further with other iOS music apps. If you like the idea of an app doing some of the heavy lifting in your next ambient music production, then Noatikl is worth exploring….